Tired Of High Taxes In Jamestown

October 24, 2013

To The Reader’s Forum: In response to Mayor Sam Teresi’s proposed budget for 2014, my husband and I are very opposed to any increase! We are angry at the lack of regard for the average homeowner wh......

Comments

HenryH

Scally, I have doubts that you are a life member of a VFD. If you were, you'd know the challenges of training to deal with the multi storied structures in the city. These are not house or barn fireS. You also know it is not sustainable due to the size of the city as those small number of volunteers that achieve the correct level of training would be prevented from earning a living. Scaly, it is not practical and you know it. However, if you wish to outsource the fire department, now we're talking!

SCALLYWAG

Hank sorry life member of our volunteer FD. There are a million different ways to organize a fire dept. part paid and part volunteer. The city has 30000 citizens. Small towns only have a few thousand and miles and miles more to cover. This just goes to show narrow minded politicians afraid of the unions. Pay up sucker. Out of 30 k people in a couple of square miles you should be able to put together a super high end fire ems dept

Watcher02

Henry H:Is the layoff clause a binding agreement between the unions or is it just the Mayors vision. There is a huge difference. This city is way over staffed with over paid cops , firefighters and administration works. The $15,000,000 speak for itself.

HenryH

Scally, you clearly do not participate in the volunteer fire departments around the County. Most VFD's struggle for members. The cost of training is very high and the time commitment higher. The City had an all volunteer FD for a long time but that is not sufficient to meet the demand for services, or at least that was the decision so many years ago. As for the Sherriff's department, go look at the reorganization documentation put out to tender for the combination of the City and County's police departments. We know the Sheriff himself will become a rain maker and get his pound of flesh to make that happen.

So Scally, you are happy to live with a response time to emergency that is well in excess of 45 minutes? Also, if you follow your earlier thinking, all we have is incapable degenerates left in the city outside the few home owners, do you trust these guys to volunteer their time to come to your aid when you do not want them part of the community? Seems you have a conundrum.

SCALLYWAG

HenryH

Watcher, OK, 10% top slice of staff across all of City government? Is that in addition to the $5.1m in changes to date? See: jamestownny . net / index. php /office-of-the-mayor/2014-executive-budget-presentation See Restructuring and Downsizing. Under Salaries and Benefits you'll see the discussion of the no layoff clauses. This means you must do away with the function completely to reduce staff without their agreement. So, to stop cost increase in the police and fire, you must close each of those departments. Which do you wish to close? You can also share with Westside the entries that discuss the law which constrains the problem.

So, tell me, how do we reduce 10% (or 20% or 30%) within the law and contracts currently in place? Please, do share your wisdom.

Watcher02

Henry H: Wake up and look at the salaries and benefits that the city of J-town pays it's employees. They have a $15,000,000 salary budget for a city of 30K. You have cops and firefighters making up to 90k a year and city administration workers making up to 80 k a year. The mayor has done very little to rain in these costs. The mayor could very easy layoff 10% of the workforce without effecting city services. Here is one solution

HenryH

Westsider, you are becoming as dull as Credence. See, it requires that you understand the local budget, local service agreements and contracts, state law, employment law and have some basic numeracy skills. If I were to take my copy of the budget and upload it with my changes, we'd then have to explain all the associated laws. You see, the trouble is that most people who have the inclination to comment here (aka the Peanut Gallery) have a hard time with solving the problem within the constructs of the existing laws. Jamestown cannot change NYS law so why go on and on about bargaining agreements when they are out of scope.

So, I'm sorry to have offended your sensitive nature by staying on topic, focused on a single question set with the Author's original letter. My point was never how to compromise. To get the tax rate the Author wants you have to remove services. No other way. So, what services are you willing to remove? Is that too simple for you?

threestrikesout

WestSider - If you give HenryH the right answer, he always changes the question. It's a little game he plays. He says the same things over and over and over, he just exchanges the key words with other words that have the same meaning.

WestSider

HenryH: At a point, belligerently and repeatedly asking the same question over and over becomes a demand.

I specifically answered your question regarding cutting services.

You've stated "the removal of non-essential spending" but haven't bothered to specify, instead claiming that you're unsure as to how to be more specific. But you're perfectly happy to harp on others and demand specifics from them.

HenryH

Scally, so why should your opinion count in this discussion if you think so little of the city? Also, I hate to point out that birds of a feather stick together and I would not really want to be associated with the fallacies that Credence and company promote. It is all bias and no substance.

HenryH

Westie! No, I asked a question which I have repeated. I've not demanded. I've not digressed from the question at hand put forth by the author. So, you and I own property in the city. What services are you willing to do without? We cannot do as the TEA people have said and disband the union as state law does not allow for that. I have stated that I believe the removal of all non-essential spending would result in a $2 per $1000 reduction in taxation. If that is not specific (by the way, that is 10% or so) then I'm not sure how to be more specific. So, considering you seem so unwilling to offer what you'd do, I'll stick to my point which is that NYS law prevents the City from changing much of anything that is meaningful. So, happy for you tell me how, within the law, change can happen.

EaglesWings

No HenryH, I really don't wanna go down to the level you're on and trade barbs with you. Childish comments like "Peanut Gallery" and the like aren't very becoming. Actually, speaking of "ignorant", you're it. You're just plain nasty.

WestSider

ICYMI: Very good editorial from Mr. Whittaker on Oct. 20: ***********post-journal****/page/content.detail/id/630055/Teresi-s-Budget-Suggests-Another-Small-City-In-Crisis.html?nav=5010

Of interest: I note that HenryH demands ideas from posters with whom he disagrees, but nowhere in this comment thread have I seen his own ideas.

And since HenryH seems to be so concerned with the residency status of those who post here: I own a home in Jamestown (West Side; my username is incredibly imaginative) and happily work at one of the larger organizations in the city.

SCALLYWAG

Hank you seem to have trouble looking beyond your own opinions. I really don't care about the city. My point is if you pay high taxes to the city of Jamestown you are the fool. Not my problem if your stuck with a house an a piece of property that is basically worthless. Its value to a buyer is the same as it was 20 years ago. Let me let you in on a little secret. Most people purchase a home for the biggest investment of there life's. They retire and use the value to retire. Sorry you made a poor decision and that's not going to happen for you. Your investment is like buying a car. Best you can hope for is to not loose to much equity. Between high taxes and scum bags destroying what was once the all American city is gone forever. When we have clients come to town we always take the outskirts to avoid the embarrassment

HenryH

Scally, you are right up there with Credence with reading comprehension. Credence proved himself challenged many months ago and certainly he does not warrant any engagement.

I've never said how much I would cut and I am saying that the current budget situation is untenable. My point is simple: WHAT IS GOING TO BE CUT? So yes, your comment is dimwitted because the City Government has entered into contractual obligations that it cannot change. NYS law prevents those obligations from being discharged without significant distress. So, to discharge them, you have cut through the bone. This is what they did in Detroit and other rust belt cities in the same form. However, if you are not a city property owner, what do you care? You can just defecate on the city's good name and contribute to a solution. So, dust off your reading skills, go back to my first comment and then contribute in a meaningful way.

SCALLYWAG

Significantly dimwitted ? I think not. Keep paying your taxes to support people who now live down south who haven't contributed to society in 30 years after putting in there 20 years of public service. Now who's the dimwitt

SCALLYWAG

Hank Jamestown has a lot to offer if your on the public dole. I have lived in this area my entire life and would not consider living any other place. We seldom go to Jamestown as there is no reason to go there. All the resources and finer things in life are outside of town. We do manage to catch a Christmas show and dinner once a year at the Lucy theater. That's it. Oh I almost forgot the dmv. Walking past the fine folks on fourth street smoking cigarettes and waiting for the handouts we provide for them. The city is a shell of its former self. Public and private unions have distorted it. This state will never begin to grow until we become a right to work state. The same as all successful states in this country

HenryH

Scallywag, that is a significantly dimwitted comment which begs the question about why you even care enough to comment. Jamestown has some lovely attributes and continues to rise above significant challenges. I suspect you have abdicated responsibility and are down there with Feddie in Texas.

SCALLYWAG

Hank anybody with an ounce of common sence knows not to own property in the cesspool unless it is income producing slum housing. If you were irresponsable enough to buy a house in Jamestown at any point in our lifetimes. You got what u wanted